Whether your web site is a personal blog or a large business site, Drupal (http://www.drupal.org) is one content management system that can cover your needs.  Written in PHP and open source, the software is designed to allow for a dizzying array of add-ons (called modules) and themes to be added to its core.  New themes and modules are added constantly by third parties extending the program to allow for new and updated technologies.  The end result is a program that allows for easy creation and simple on-going management of your web site.

Drupal’s Beginnings

Dries Buytaert originally created the program as a message board and it was released as an open source project in 2001.  The name Drupal comes from the Dutch word “druppel” which translates to “drop”.  Apparently, Buytaert had originally created a web site (no longer utilized) called drop.org.  The intent had been to create the domain dorp.org (“dorp” translates to “village”) but a mix-up garnered drop.org instead.  Drop = druppel = Drupal.  Drupal has become one of the most widely downloaded CMS programs around – 1.4 million times from May 2007 to April 2008 and it shows no sign of slowing down any time soon.

The Core

Packaged within the basic Drupal program are core modules that an administrator may enable or disable, depending on the needs of the web site.  The administrator may also configure which users are able to add, modify or delete content, as well as which areas of the web site are accessible by members or anonymous users.  Taxonomy is the key to allowing categorization of content or “tagging” with keywords to enable easier search of the web site.  Some of basic core modules you’ll find include blogging capabilities, forums, polls, RSS feed capability and a feed aggregator.  Also, Drupal includes several basic themes and a color module allowing the web site owner the ability to change the look and color scheme of their site right after installing Drupal.

Modules and Themes

At last count, there are over 4,800 different modules and over 550 themes available to add onto Drupal.  This huge assortment allows you to modify your web site to do exactly what you need.  From image galleries, content type customization, WYSIWYG editors, social media plug-ins, and much more, Drupal third party add-ons will allow you to create the perfect site.  With the available themes, a “plain jane” web site can be transformed into a work of art.  Most themes created for Drupal are written in the PHPTemplate or Xtemplate engines.  A few templates are all plain PHP hard-coded and do not require either engine.  It’s preferable to use one of the engine-based themes as these are designed to separate HTML and CSS from the PHP coding.

Security

As of its 6.x version, Drupal can be enabled to automatically inform the administrator of all new versions of the core, add-on modules or included themes.  This core modules is called the Update Status module.  This by itself is a very handy tool as Drupal is constantly on top of any security issues that arise and will update the core as soon as the security fixes are implemented.  For older versions of Drupal (5.x and lower), and auto-update modules is available for download as add-on module (not part of the core).  Drupal.org also has a mailing list available to alert subscribers of any security concerns and updates as they occur.

Conclusion

With so many CMS programs out there to choose from, the best bets are those that are continuously monitored for security and have a lot to offer in as far as add-ons.  Drupal is one such program and is highly recommended.

The Post Nuke CMS is quite similar to the more mature PHP Nuke.  While it is indeed a fork of PHP Nuke, the core code has been replaced entirely with the aim of creating a more stable and secure environment.  The comparison of these two applications has made for a rather controversial subject among fans of both systems.  Let’s take a closer look to see how Post Nuke matches up against the CMS from which it borrows so many characteristics.

Post Nuke Advantages

When it comes to displaying publicly accessible information, the efficiency of PHP Nuke is second to none on the open-source CMS market.  It is also more extensible through a much larger number of add-on modules.  These are major benefits, but the features of Post Nuke give it some advantages that make the system a worthy competitor to PHP Nuke.  Post Nuke offers a comprehensive and detailed user permissions systems that allows administrators to restrict access to each module and area of a website to specific users or groups.  It lets you add users to a single or multiple groups to delegate a wide range of complicated permissions with relative ease.  These capabilities can really come in handy if you require lower level administrators, moderators and other users to aid in managing your site but still wish to limit access.

Post Nuke Disadvantages

Post Nuke definitely has some advantages over PHP Nuke but its disadvantages could be far more noteworthy.  Unfortunately, this CMS often appears to trapped as a prisoner of its own rapid development.  Post Nuke has evolved so quickly and changed so frequently that the backwards compatibility has been broken, thus making the platform difficult for even the most experienced webmasters to keep up with.  This lack of compatibility coupled with circling rumors of its development being cancelled has resulted in a large number of users turning back to PHP Nuke in favor of its outstanding community support, vast selection of modules and greater probability of ongoing development.   One of the biggest knocks on Post Nuke has been community support that at times has seemed non existent.

The Security Aspect

Many supporters have made the argument that Post Nuke is a more secure CMS than PHP Nuke.  However, independent tests show that a determined hacker will likely have a more difficult time cracking into PHP Nuke opposed to Post Nuke.   The results of one test in particular showed that hackers spent nearly five minutes successfully hacking into a PHP Nuke website while compromising a Post Nuke site in as little as 20 seconds.  Although this five minutes might not cause you to sleep any more comfortably at night, it does indicate that users could have a false sense of security in regard to their belief that Post Nuke is a more secure solution.

Post Nuke and PHP Nuke both have their advantages and disadvantages.  At the same time, both are very capable and can be made adequately secure with the right configurations.  Perhaps the best way to decide which is best would be to visit the sites for both projects to learn more about how they can meet your website needs.

Joomla and Drupal are easily the two most popular options on the open-source CMS market.  Both systems took tremendous leaps in the right direction with the releases of Joomla 1.5 and Drupal 5.0.  You could say Drupal went a little further as it is currently on stable version 6.13.  This debate always makes for a good discussion but which CMS is really better?  It is no secret that Joomla and Drupal both have their respective fan bases.  Perhaps the best to analyze this largely contested battle is to judge these platforms by what they are good at.

Larger Projects

Drupal is often said to be one of the best open -source systems for large extensible sites.  This is because it offers better overall support for social networking, multimedia, documentation management, SSL and permission capabilities.  Though it appears to be lacking features in comparison to Joomla, Drupal’s lean and focused nature gives it a distinct advantage.  The software is based purely on necessity opposed to glamor.  Its framework is more focused on extensibility, providing developers with a way to easily tap into the core functionality.  Drupal does not try to pack in all the small features.  Instead, it delivers all the essentials and opens itself up to endless enhancements.

Ease of Use

Drupal is incredibly efficient as a content management tool, but even if its proponents will tell you that it comes with a very steep learning curve.  In addition, it takes a lot of work to get the software up and running efficiently.  Joomla on the other hand, is renowned throughout the world for being a user-friendly tool that requires virtually no technical experience at all.  Even though it is a bit cluttered, the back-end allows you to get around Joomla pretty easily and access all the modules and tools that come along with the package.  This CMS is also fairly simple to customize as a wide variety of templates are available to instantly change the look and feel of your site.  That is not to say that quality Drupal themes are not out there, but they are much harder to find.  When it comes to simplicity and ease of use, Joomla wins hands down.

Add-on Functionality

Like many open-source content management systems, both Joomla and Drupal are highly extensible, able to enjoy add-on functionality provided by modules and plugins.  However, add-on functionality with Drupal is far more powerful than Joomla, mainly because of its codebase.  Additionally, many of the Joomla modules require a considerable amount of hacking of the core functionality in order to get the full effect.  Because every extension is an entirely different animal, these add-ons don’t always integrate seamlessly with one another which often leads to numerous problems.  An issue with a single module could result in mass chaos for your whole Joomla site.

Conclusion

After reading this article, it should be clear to see that both Joomla and Drupal have their pros and cons.  The best way to decide would be to first determine what you intend to use the software for and then base your choice on those requirements.  One thing is for sure – these platforms will continue to be enhanced and the end, the communities of both will come out on top.

When it comes to creating a large, content rich site, it is important to know that you have many tools available to you, not just the popular brands that get all the press hype.  Unfortunately, the plethora of CMS options only makes choosing one that much harder.  This complexity compounded by all the myths that come along with content management are enough to persuade you into giving up and dropping your plans altogether.  Many have the misconception that they cannot succeed with a CMS due to fears of needing to be a proficient web programmer.  While this is true with some programs, most content management systems are easy to use and require no programming skills at all.  This is definitely the case with Xoops, a powerful CMS on the rise.

What Can Xoops Do?

Xoops is the ideal CMS for a wide range of situations.  It makes a viable tool for creating dynamic websites or community sites big or small for informational or business matters.  Whether it is a blog or corporate intranet site, Xoops can help you get it up and running efficiently.  Perhaps the best thing about this CMS is that it is open-source software free to download, use and modify.  This means that if you have your own in-house team, you can develop modules and extensions to greatly enhance its core functionality.

Flexible and Highly Extensible

The Xoops framework is very flexible and allows you to use the platform in a variety of ways.  For example, you can choose to install a lite Xoops instance, which is recommended for smaller personal blogs or journals.  Though a more compact version with less features, a lite installation  includes a news module that is integrated with the core framework and serves great purpose for such projects.  The standard version is best suited for medium sized sites as it allows you to make use of additional modules such as Forum, Web Links and Download.  These modules will go a long way in creating a community friendly environment that encourages interaction among your site members and visitors.  A larger, content-rich e-commerce site can thrive from customize modules, which are widely available both free and commercially through third-party developers.  These additions include security modules that provide firewall and anti-virus protection, customized HTML editors and word processing modules, backup and restore modules, diagnostic modules and several more.

Consider Xoops for Your Project

Xoops is becoming increasingly popular at a rapid rate, serving as a worthy competition to popular open-source content management systems such as Joomla, Drupal and Mambo.  With all the modules and extensions its supports, this is clearly one of the most extensible out of the whole bunch.  Although having a little technical abilities will help your efforts in terms of customization, Xoops delivers out of the box functionality that allows anyone to have success creating and maintaining a content-rich site.  This CMS puts all the tools you need to create forums, news items, blogs, and wikis right at your finger tips.

Though often associated with hosting and network servers, Linux itself is operating system software.  Unlike Unix, which can be traced back to AT&T Labs circa in the 1960s, Linux is an open-source system that wasn’t released until nearly 30 years later.  In the 1980s, most operating systems were commercial products tied to proprietary licenses.  Those who wanted to reference the software were out of luck as they didn’t have access to the source code.  Things changed dramatically when Linus Torvalds introduced Linux in 1991.  The system took off in the late 1990s as more students got on board with the development of the project and the open-source community began to evolve.  The purpose of this article isn’t to provide a history lesson, but inform you that the Linux platform has come a long way and now stands at the forefront of the hosting industry.

Why Linux?

Linux makes a great option for web hosting because the system is so widely supported.  Many of the tools that help power the hosting industry have all been specifically designed to support the platform.  This goes from web servers like Apache and programming languages such as PHP, Cold Fusion and Ruby.  Even cPanel, the leading hosting control panel, has been designed to support the system, making it incredibly easy to manage a Linux server that would otherwise be complex.  When choosing Linux, you get a powerful hosting solution that gives you everything you need to create a professional, feature-rich website.

All in all, Linux is cheaper than Microsoft Windows, its main rival, and also said to be faster and more stable.  While the software is naturally complex than Windows, the development community is constantly introducing GUIs (graphical user interfaces) and other comprehensive tools to reduce the learning curve and make the system easier to work with.  As far stability and reliability are concerned, Linux is second to none.  Unlike other systems, this one does not require shutdowns every time you perform an upgrade, patch implementation or software installation.  This factor gives Linux the ability to greatly reduce down and demonstrate resilience in the hosting arena.

Another notable benefit is that regardless of the operating system you have running on your computer, you can still choose a web hosting service running on the Linux platform.  Therefore, even if you have Windows or Mac OS X installed, you can still choose a Linux plan and reap all the benefits it has to offers.  There are however, third-party software applications such as Microsoft SQL Server and other non-open-source technologies that may not be compatible with the Linux platform.  This is changing quickly as even Microsoft’s proprietary FrontPage client is now supported by most hosting providers running the Linux operating system.

The Preferred Hosting Platform

While there are really no significant differences between the systems, Linux has been openly embraced and is therefore, often a first choice for hosting customers.  In fact, you will find that this system is at the basis of most hosting platforms, more so than both Unix and the fast growing Windows server.